New job, fundraiser reminder, and other updates

Great news: I got a job!! And not just any old job, but the one that caused me to tell Michael after the first interview, "I think this is the one." As of September 28 (oh my gosh that's next week!), I will be the new interactive specialist for Atria Senior Living and working in the ultra-posh 5/3 building right on the corner of Fourth Street Live. After nine months of being out of work (happily, I might add!), I started to lose hope that I would find a job I like at a decent salary, but apparently a few of them still exist. I filled out paperwork and took my drug test last Thursday downtown. So now I'm trying to get Jacob into a new day care (Madison's old day care already has a full infant class) and get Madison's before/after school care set up with the YMCA, not to mention match up professional clothes that haven't been worn since last year and get a bunch of things ironed!

All of this is now much easier to handle without a sick baby at home. Although Jacob's better now, he was running a very high fever last week (104.5 at one point), which lasted several days. After that broke, he had a spotty harmless rash for a few days. The doctor said it was just some viral muck that he had to wait out. But, hey, he never threw up and still was eating, so it could have been worse.

On the activity front, we went to see the Juggernauts a little over a week ago at Clifton's (best calzones on earth!), so Jacob got his first taste of their silly antics. Then I took the kids and Grandma Mary to the Jug Band Jubilee Saturday for a bit and saw a couple of bands at the grassy outdoor Brown-Forman Ampitheater. We didn't get to see the Japanese Jug Band, but I hear they are quite good. The neighborhood picnic was also Saturday, and the kids played until they had no energy left. Jacob enjoyed a bouncer and cotton candy for the first time (just a pinch or two), and Madison ran around like a crazy child. We were going to attend the Fossil Festival yesterday at the Falls of the Ohio, but we decided to stay home due to the rain. I think we needed a quiet day anyway.

Madison is still having a few adjustment issues at school and can't keep her hands to herself, but she's very proud of the two days in a row she was good last week. Nana and Papa came up last Tuesday to the Grandparents Lunch at Madison's school, so they got to see her in action. She's been sleeping a lot better and hasn't been sneaking out of bed lately. And she's been "reading" everything lately. She copies words from cans of veggies and other products and loves to play word games in the car. JUST A REMINDER: Her fundraising orders and money are due tomorrow, so please let me know if you plan to place an order. (See the last post if you want to order online.)

I think that's all I have for now. Remember, we have zoo passes this year, so if anyone wants to meet up at the zoo for a day of fun, let me know. Madison gets out of school around 4 (for this week), but after next Monday, we'd have to go on a weekend.

It's fundraiser time!

Well, I'll tell you about the fundraiser in a minute, but first, an update...

Madison still cannot seem to stay on task at school, but her teacher says she sees improvement. We ate lunch with her last Friday since Michael was off work, and I took her to the open house tonight. Last week when she got into trouble for hitting a classmate (who was also hitting her), I made her write lines (remember THAT one?): "I will not hit my classmates." Now, it was only seven times, but that took her a long time to write. Our joke is that she may be naughty, but she'll be the best writer in class!

We were all pretty busy over the weekend. We took the kids swimming at the Milestone Center Friday night, went to Worldfest on the Belvedere with Grandma Mary Saturday, and went to Lexington Monday to visit Nana and Papa Krantz and Uncle Matt & Aunt Christina. Everything got a little complicated Sunday when Michael fell at the golf course and wedged a rock into his knee. He pulled it out, slapped a band-aide on it, and played six more holes. When he got home, I cleaned it, pulled out another pebble and some debris, and told him he needed stitches. So we all took a trip to urgent care where he got four stitches from a former Alabama football player. By Tuesday, we were back in there because his knee was infected. So he's on a strong antibiotic now, and I get the lovely task of cleaning the wound several times a day. He's got Sharpie marks all over the place to measure the spread of the redness, but it's looking better.

Jacob is now moving way too fast and is trying to enjoy the cat food snacks and the splash park that is the water bowl. So we have makeshift barricades all over the place to keep him from getting into the more interesting items. And he is working on finding a way through them.

And now for the fundraising news...Madison's school is jumping right into the fall fundraiser, leaving all of the new Kindergarten parents thinking, "didn't school JUST START?!" The items you all get to enjoy come from Kleinhenn, and there are two catalogs. You can see these on the web at http://www.kleinhenn.com/fall_2009.html and let me know what you want. Money has to be turned in by September 22, so please send me your checks made out to Watterson Elementary before then. We will get your items to you as soon as we can. You can also order on the web at http://www.teamschoolfundraiser.com/cart/index.lasso?id=1380, but, of course, you have to pay shipping. We have been told there may be some items available only online. I plan to enjoy my $7 chicken and wild rice soup mix as soon as the weather gets cool, along with something chocolate (some $8 chocolate walnut fudge sounds good!). Thanks to everyone for your support!

Wednesday...Adams?!

Yesterday was not a good day for Madison. When I picked her up from school, she was deceptively bright and cheery, but then I read the teacher's comments. She apparently colored on the classroom's new fabric chair pouches that hold supplies, stole the math bears and put them in her locker, and kicked her locker. So after dinner, I made her write a "sorry" note to her teacher and get right to bed after her bath. And since she's been sneaking candy, we've been closing her door all the way at night. So when we heard her open her door and run down the hallway, Michael asked her why she was out. She replied that she was getting a drink of water. I told him she was SO lying, so we went right up there to check things out. She had quickly hopped back into bed, but there was a strange aroma of Skittles surrounding her. Sure enough, she was lying on a handful of them and had all the colors of the rainbow around her mouth. I told Michael it was his turn to discipline her and brush her teeth again so I wouldn't be tempted to hang her upside down by her ankles from the ceiling fan. The funny thing is that Michael actually hid his Skittles, so she has to be scoping out the opportunities ahead of time, which makes her smart enough to get the candy but not mature enough to hide the evidence well. [Sigh]...she promised to be good today so she can get a treat and so we can eat lunch with her tomorrow. We shall see.

a weekend of rejuvenation

This past Thursday through Sunday made up for all of the stress of last week. Thursday night was the PTA skating party, so Madison and I had a girls' night out. It was her first time on real skates, so most of the two hours was spent clinging to the side railing or rolling on the carpeted area. I decided to get some skates, too, and was pleasantly surprised to know that I could still skate pretty well (even backwards!) after 10 years of not being at a roller rink. Madison chased around several of her new little friends, and I discovered in talking with another parent that my child is not the only hoodlum in the class. Apparently [gasp!] there are other children who also get sad faces circled on their charts, causing their parents as much alarm as me.

Friday night, we watched Matilda together, staying up way too late but loving the cuddle time after brother was put to bed. Saturday and Sunday were spent mostly outdoors shopping for flowers, planting flowers, playing in dirt. And last night, we took the kids to a Bats game. Daddy actually watched the game while I took Madison to see Jake the Diamond Dog, play on the playgrounds, and ride the carosel. Of course, the kids got to bed past their bedtime, and this morning was INSANE trying to get Madison up and get her off to school, but we'll do better tonight.

What are we to do?

As Michael says daily, "Madison is out of control." I wonder where we went wrong as parents, and she hasn't even hit the teenage years yet. Yesterday at school, after being told once by the teacher's aide to stop shouting in the bathroom, she got into trouble for shouting again and sitting on the bathroom sink. Yes, you read that right. The aide wrote a note home that said Madison needs CONSTANT supervision.

Last night, she got a spanking for the third day in a row for sneaking candy into her bedroom. This morning, I found several Hershey's Kisses under her pillow and a ton of wrappers in the trash, so she got out of bed again last night after the spanking. Granted, even though we had gathered up all of Michael's candy (hey, it's not mine!), we had left it in a pile in the hallway ready to go downstairs. Apparently, it was just too tempting. Maybe we need spankings, too.

Funny...I said I'd never be a spanking parent. I don't even spank that often. I need some alternatives, because apparently it doesn't work. I feel like we've tried everything we can think of: time-outs, taking away privileges, incentives of all sorts. It's like she forgets what we tell her 30 seconds after she hears it. This morning I had a "Mommy Dearest" thought of handcuffing her to the bed at night. Now, of course I would never actually do it, but I've obviously hit a desperation stage to even entertain the thought.

I see myself as an intelligent parent. I read all the articles on Babycenter.com. I try all the tricks. Madison knows I love her because I tell her every night that I love her no matter what, even if she's naughty. My guess is that because she's in a new environment with school, and Jacob's newfound mobility is taking more of my attention, she is misbehaving either for more attention, to test the rules, or to gain control where she feels she's lost it. So theoretically, it should pass when she gets used to all the newness, as it has before. In the meantime, I welcome free babysitting while I go meditate in silence for an hour!

Mobile Baby

Jacob is finding ways to get to where he wants to go. Currently, he mostly creeps on his belly and pulls himself forward arm over arm. He can also get on all fours and then push himself into a belly flop, and he can do baby push ups on his toes. Time to dust off the baby gates! (And time to put away my "to do" piles of paper since paper seems to fascinate him more than anything else.) [Note: I really tried to upload a video of the mobile baby, but I gave up after it was still uploading four hours later. So you'll just have to use your imagination.]

Madison has had good days and not-so-good days at school. Yesterday, she got into trouble for spraying water all over the place in the bathroom. Mind you, she wasn't the only kid doing it, and I'm sure it was great fun, but it caused her to get a "sad face" for the afternoon. She is so unfocused these days, but every child development article I read states that is perfectly normal for her age. So until she can control her urges to play in the sink, sneak candy into her bed at night, and drag her brother across the room, we will have to up our efforts at bribery (punishments seem to have no effect on her anyway). Her most funny recent moment was last Saturday when we caught her with her drawers down trying to pee under the slide to avoid going inside to the bathroom. [Note to readers: this is NOT a normal behavior in our house!] It was so hard not to laugh. I don't think I totally succeeded in making my facial expression look stern.

In the recent adult news, I have a second interview today with Atria Senior Living downtown, and I had a pretty good interview with Bachman Auto Group last Friday. If all goes well, maybe I'll have two offers at the same time. Atria would be the most interesting job, with more project management type work, although it is a drive to get there. Bachman would be more boring web update stuff, but the location is closer to home. Maybe I'll get no offers and will continue to be a happy stay-at-home mommy. It all seems like a win-win-win to me!

9-Month Check-up

Jacob had his 9-month check-up this morning and is doing great. He is 19 lbs 13 oz and 28 3/8" tall. He got a Hepatitis B shot in one leg and a flu shot in the other (notice the Roadrunner band-aides, which is cool since Madison is a Watterson Roadrunner now!). For the second time, he has not cried during shots...just a wimper on the flu shot. He's such a little toughie. He was all over the exam table and wouldn't sit still, which entertained the nurse and doctor greatly.

Daddy took Madison to school this morning and braved the drop off line by himself. Madison seemed ready to go have fun today. I just hope she doesn't get a note about excessive talking like she did Friday. :)